How to communicate with people who don’t understand your language (Wanderlust Magazine)

I have a missing brain cell…actually, there’s discussion between my family and friends that I might be missing more than one, but there’s a particular brain cell I’d like to talk about – the one that covers learning a language.

Ever since I first set foot in Spain, then Latin America, I’ve been trying, painfully slowly and with a great deal of difficulty, to learn Spanish. It’s not proven entirely impossible – I certainly know more than when I began – but given the amount of time I’ve spent in the Spanish-speaking world, my lingo skills should be much, much better.

But I’m trying. And in the spirit of understanding – both linguistic and otherwise – I’m putting out this call to the people whose language I’m butchering: a guide on how to speak to someone who doesn’t speak your language.